


Stuck in Second Gear / There For You

by Severina



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Community: lands_of_magic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 14:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4670444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Independence might not be all its cracked up to be, and fulfilling a several centuries long quest can pale in light of missing one's true love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck in Second Gear / There For You

**Author's Note:**

> Early Season Two. Two connecting ficlets, written for the prompts 'independence' and 'need' at LJ's lands_of_magic Badda Bing challenge.
> 
> * * *

Stuck in Second Gear  
by Severina

The caretaker's apartment above the library is quite small – a tiny kitchenette that barely holds a bistro table and two chairs, and a sitting room with a daybed and a television atop a bureau. A washing room with a large bathtub completes the unit.

Belle is delighted.

She doesn't have much, after all. Her clothes fit easily in the closet and the chest of drawers, though she still isn't quite sure how the process of acquiring them had worked. She had simply chosen some lovely things from something called a 'catalogue' and they had arrived at the door of Rumple's house two days later, all without the benefit of any coin changing hands. She had planned to ask him to explain the concept of credit cards to her again, but then things had… happened. Spiraled out of control. Her father, the mad ride through the tunnels, the men in her life trying to wrest control of her fate from her hands. She had been so _angry_.

And somehow, all of it had led to this.

Belle wanders the apartment slowly. She finds fresh milk and vegetables in the refrigerator, canned goods in the cupboards. At first she doesn't know if the place had been restocked with her in mind, but one look into the cookie jar confirms her suspicions. Of all the foods that she's discovered so far in the new world, Oreos are by far her favourite.

She takes several of the cookies and a large glass of cold milk with her to the sitting room, curls up on the settee with a comfortable blanket and switches on the television. At first she can do little more than marvel at the images on the screen, people walking and talking and acting out small plays for her interest and amusement. But after a time she settles on a program about several good friends whose antics make her laugh, and falls asleep with their theme song still running through her head.

Belle spends the next several days organizing her space. She cleans everything that can possibly be cleaned, scrubbing at surfaces until her hands are red and raw. She rearranges the items in the cupboard until they are exactly how she wants them, then stands back to admire the perfect symmetry of the rows of canned corn and beans. It is only when she is colour coordinating the clothing in her tiny closet that she realizes that she is simply making work for herself in order to avoid doing what she really _wants_ to do. 

And why shouldn't she do what she wants? It's her choice, her life. Her decision. 

She shakes her head, finds the little telephone that Rumple had meticulously explained how to use. It still takes her a few moments to remember how to retrieve the menu, but she doesn't hesitate before pushing the correct button.

"Rumple?" she asks when his voice reaches her ear. "I was wondering… would today be a good day to go for hamburgers?"

***

There For You  
by Severina

Rumplestiltskin is used to silence.

He spends hours beyond counting in his shop, and the door rarely opens. He can become immersed in repairing a delicate object or lost in a tale from a book and know with reasonable certainty that he will not be disturbed. The arrival of Miss Swan and the breaking of the curse had briefly made his little shop slightly more popular, but even that seems to have tapered off in the past few days. He once again, thankfully, has his time to himself.

He can work on whatever he pleases. Fine-tune his plans for his search for his son. Ensure the perfect balance for the potion that will allow him to leave the confines of this backwater little town.

Instead he listens to the sound of his cane as he taps his way to the large front window once again, and strains his neck in an attempt to see the library. To see Belle. And for the tenth, twentieth, hundredth time, he is disappointed.

He is making his way back to the counter when the telephone set upon its glass surface rings once, then again.

Rumplestiltskin pauses halfway across the room, brow wrinkling. He has no friends. He doesn't even have acquaintances. His cell phone, simply put, does not ring.

Unless…

Anyone watching from the street would surely laugh at the spectacle he makes of himself as he lurches across the room to snatch the phone from the counter, at the fumbling stabs he makes at the buttons when he sees the name of the caller displayed in shining letters. His cane clatters to the floor and he clutches at the edge of the counter to keep himself upright. 

"Belle?"

To his ears, his voice sounds breathless and weak, reedy with need. His name from her lips when she replies makes his old heart stutter alarmingly in his chest, and he clenches the counterpane with knuckles turned white with strain and tries to concentrate and she still needs to repeat his name before he truly realizes he is not tucked up in his too-big bed and imagining the entire thing. 

Belle is asking him to escort her out. On a date. To get hamburgers.

"That…" he swallows, begins again in a vain attempt to quiet the eager, desperate croak his voice has become. "That sounds like a lovely idea, Belle. I'm looking forward to it."


End file.
